Better strategies key to women empowerment: Green Delta MD

Every institution should put a strategy in place in order to advance women empowerment, said Farzana Chow-dhury, managing director of Green Delta Insurance.

“The strategy will ensure women's fair job placement, rights and safety issues and engagement in decision-making processes,” she said.

Four years ago, Chowdhury became the first woman to head a leading insurer of the country. But it was not a smooth journey.

After completing post-graduation in 1993, she joined Scholastica as a teacher in 1994. Soon she came to realise that it was not the area she wanted to build her career into.

She joined Brac in 1997 where she chose to work in credit and microfinance. In 2000, she went to Australia to do an MBA in finance and banking at Monash University to further her grip on the subject.

After finishing the course she returned to Bangladesh and joined Brac Bank in 2002. She worked for the bank for nearly seven years. When she left she was the head of its SME division.

Chowdhury joined Green Delta in 2009 as its additional managing director and group chief financial officer. In May 2013 she was picked as the CEO.

“Though I inherited my father, I had to prove my capacity. Even, the regulators took two months to give me clearance and had verified my qualification through two assessors.”

Under her leadership, Green Delta has adopted a policy to ensure women's rights and put women in senior management roles.

Now almost one-fifth of Green Delta's employees are women and one of them has been promoted to higher management position.

Green Delta has formed an association to raise women's voices and promote their rights.

Chowdhury said Green Delta Insurance is the only corporate house in Bangladesh that has signed the UN's women empowerment principles.

It has introduced a product named “Nibedita Comprehensive Insurance Policy” for women only.

The product offers trauma allowance in case of rape, road accidents, robberies and acid attacks. The premium for the policy starts from Tk 580.

Chowdhury called for changing the mindset of the society and family first.She said women suffer in their career when they have to take maternity leave. “But organisations don't recognise their contribution to the society; rather they punish them in some cases.”

She said along with a would-be mother, her husband should get leave during an employee's maternity leave. “We will soon start the paternity leave.”